Coast to Coast 2011

Biutiful - Alejandro González Iñárritu (spoiler alert)

Just saw this in the theater tonight, yet another amazing performance by Javier Bardem, he carried the whole fucking film on his shoulders with amazing subtlety and layers upon layers of depth, fucking amazing. The film (SPOILER ALERT) centers around a character stricken by prostate cancer, struggling alongside poverty and parenthood as he make ends meet as a father. What drew me in the most was the non-descript multiple parallel stories that weave in and out of the film: from Bardem's gift to communicate with the dead, to his exploitative yet ambiguous friendship with illegal immigrants living in Barcelona, to a face to face reconciliation with his dead father whom he has never met once in his life, carves a gray, surreal, sincere melodrama expertly handled by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

At the end of the film, a brief tender dedication goes out to Iñárritu's father, and I fell so hard and identified with this film thinking the way we go around things as men, and as artists, in our efforts to reconcile, or to come in to terms with our fathers, as with our eventual role in fatherhood that a lot of us dodge like guilt. This grey shadow of a figure that stands amidst our life, grafting us in his likeness as we inherit involuntary traits. I couldn't help but think of what fatherhood would be like, and the way you live your life now could come back and haunt you or salute you one day through your children.

I'm tripping myself out right now.

I'm sorry if I spoiled the film for you if you've read this far, but its a perfect film for a rainy day, and you will be rewarded with some thoughts when you walk out of the theater. Go see it, its a great film.

The Gospel of Touring by Thor Harris

My friend Michael Farsky just sent me this:

read it here

U.S. Girls

One of my favorite contemporary artists, Meghan Remy AKA U.S. Girls. We first met and played a rooftop show on top of my old apartment in Montreal 2 years ago, she was a great inspiration to the latter singer conception of Dirty Beaches. An amazing artist that I admire greatly.

Gorgeous to death and a real woman.

Go see her play at the MOMA PS1 in NY when April comes:

* 4/2 - Long Island, NY / MoMA PS1
* 4/15 - Northampton, MA / Ladyfest @ Davis Ballroom, Smith College
* 4/21 - NYC / The Stone

Listen to her music here:

US GIRLS

"Hey at the studio now recording call you later"

NO CELL PHONES SHOULD EVER BE ALLOWED IN THE STUDIO. LOOK AT THIS SHIT.

Bloodshot Bill

This is where I learned how to comb my hair.

Bloodshot Bill, a one man rockabilly band from Montreal is fucking amazing LIVE. Be sure not to miss him when he tours through your town. Besides my father and Sun records artists, Bloodshot Bill made me wanted to try and tackle the Rockabilly genre.

True inspiration, and a true badass.

Check out some of his tunes here:

Bloodshot Bill

Badlands review

Dissected by Abe Ahn with impeccable precision.

http://evilmonito.com/2011/03/23/badlands/

Currently at some friends house in Echo Park, Los Angeles. The dub tape recording session will commence tomorrow, and will be a marathon recording session of 48 hrs, with plenty of smoke breaks, of course. Still can't believe the tour is over, the mileage count on the tour van when we arrived Los Angeles was over 10,000 miles, I was shocked how much we had driven in one month. Currently suffering from post Sxsw stress disorder, I get a mild panic attack if I can't get a cab. Only to realize I don't have to be anywhere for the next month. It will be nice to go home after the work is finished, and just relax and walk around downtown east side in Vancouver.

Can't wait.

Jon Moritsugu films on DVD now!

Thanks to Maxxy Max for the info, Jon Moritsugu's films are now available on DVD!!!!

Link here:

Jon Moritsugu.com

Good times at D-22 in Beijing. That is one happy dude. Photos by OuJian

Miss you guys already.
xo
photo via Amalie

Fixture records - Japan Tsunami Relief Donation

For more info, visit:

http://fixturerecords.tumblr.com/


For the next month, we will be donating 100% of download sales on our website to the Miyagi Prefecture in Japan to help with their relief efforts.

DOWNLOAD ALBUMS AVAILABLE:

Dirty Beaches - Bird EP » Listen / Download
Dirty Beaches - Seaside EP » Listen / Download
Postcards - self-titled cassette » Listen / Download

All downloads cost $5 CAN
We can process payments using paypal or credit card
After checkout, you will be automatically re-directed to a page to download a zip file containing the mp3s and album art
Our friends at Big Love Records in Harajuku, Tokyo will forward your donations to the Miyagi government to allocate as necessary. They believe that sending donations directly to the local regional council will have the fastest and most efficient result.

If you already have these titles and would still like to contribute, you can make a simple donation through Big Love and/or order records and merch marked “charity” in their online shop.

Please reblog/forward/tweet/share, etc.

Thanks to Postcards and Dirty Beaches for donating their music.

———————
More info:
Miyagi Prefecture
http://www.pref.miyagi.jp/kihu.htm (in japanese)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyagi_Prefecture

Big Love
http://biglove.bigcartel.com
http://shop.escalator.co.jp

Thank you Johnny - Hausu DVD

Special thanks to Johnny from Massachusetts, who brought to the Boston show the Criterion Collection DVD of House for me. I was utterly in shock of happiness when I opened the brown paper package and saw the red screaming cat on the cover art. After the show we set up the Dum Dum Girls projector in the hotel room we were staying, and watched it on the wall, in all its full glory.

This was a real treat for me, and thank you again, Johnny.

Sincerely,
Alex

Educational photo sent to me via Sandy Vu

Golden Desert Sun Video

Dirty Beaches - Golden Desert Sun from Jacqueline Lachance on Vimeo.

Currently in Atlanta, GA right now, at a hotel called highland inn. Everyone is so tired and beat from the road, but the climate is getting warmer the more south we venture, can't wait until its t-shirt weather once again.

My good friend Jacqueline Lachance just sent me this beautiful video for golden desert sun, shot at the end of last summer in Montreal, mostly of slide projection stills and other amazing images shot by Jacqueline herself. She is so amazing and talented.

I hope you guys will enjoy the video

love
alex

Demo - Street Beat Dub

Just recorded this in my friend Matt Koshak's Studio in Bushwick, NY. Featuring the talented Sandy Vu on drums, and Matt on the dub control booth. It was recorded LIVE and mixed in a 3hr session, we ran and hopped in a cab to our show at glasslands immediately after. It was a productive day and a great night in New York. Everyone at the show were super nice and we all had a great time afterwards dancing to Dee Dee's DJ set.

Street Beat dub (demo) by Dirty Beaches

Matt and I will resume to mixing this track and dub it out even furthermore when we get to his apartment in LA.

Enjoy the demo!

xo
I love you and will be home soon.

LIVE at Glasslands with Dum Dum Girls & Minks

Video Via Kevchino

Interview on Giant Robot!

Thanks to Sandy Vu, I had the great pleasure to meet Martin Wong of Giant Robot, whose magazine I read often as a teenager in Honolulu. It was a trip to meet him and talk about wong kar-wai, Jon Moritsugu, and other Asian cinema that we grew up loving.

Read the interview HERE!